Nazi shipwrecks emerge from the depths as Europe’s Danube dries up

The wreckage of a Nazi warship has become visible above the exceptionally low water line on the Danube near Prahovo in Serbia this week. Photograph: Darko Vojinović/AP

Record-low water levels in the Danube have exposed remnants of Europe’s Nazi past, with dozens of second world war ships emerging from the riverbed during an intense drought.

In the middle of the river on the Serbian and Romanian border, a broken-up hull was visible on a sandbank that is normally underwater. Other vessels were partly submerged, some still believed to be laden with weapons.